Rehabilitation center for 60 disabled in Poland

Cables, motors, mechanisms. That was my whole world. As a child, in my family home in small Prazki near ódz,I loved to create models of cars and ships. Then I constructed a soldering station for my diploma thesis at the electronics technical school in Piotrków Trybunalski, . But I had a small delay. I defended my diploma in September.

“Your spine is broken. We have to operate on him quickly.” This is what I learned from the doctors after I regained consciousness the next day after the accident. They started the procedure but they did not finish it. Blood was filling my lungs. I ended up in the ICU. Laying flat on my bed for a month. I couldn't even lift my head. Once I could breathe on my own and they cleared up the wound infection from the first treatment, I underwent the actual surgery to decompress my spinal cord and stabilize my spine. If I had it earlier, maybe I would be fitter.

I didn't believe that I would not be able to walk again. I also did not believe the doctors, nor to the boy from the Foundation for Active Rehabilitation (FAR). He visited me and showed me how to move around in a wheelchair. I haven't come to terms with the fact that I won't walk. But I realized that if other people could live with it, so could I. I just need to find the best way for me.

Rehabilitation camps. This is where I started my search. I wanted to get back in shape and lose some weight. Long weeks of treatment and recovery made me put on weight. Swimming helped. Good thing I learned swimming when I was a child. My muscles remembered the crucial movements. Exercising on a horizontal bar in the past also helped.. My arms were getting stronger and stronger.

I also gained new professional skills. Computer graphics, web designing and photo processing. That was my new direction.

I was living an active life. I also started to train wheelchair basketball, which I learned about at the FAR camp. Then I studied IT at the Lodz University of Technology. And a year later, I worked as an office worker in an OSH company. I trained for fun and health benefits. I didn't expect that I would ever reach the Polish National Team and participate in the Summer Paralympic Games in London in 2012.

"Spread your wings". This is the name of the PAY IT FORWARD Foundation's project, in which people with disabilities learn to fly paragliders and gliders. I also took part in it. My choice was paragliding. When I fly, I feel free, unrestricted by the wheelchair. I feel like I can "reach for the sky" no matter what,

I moved to Konin and started working there. And all of that thanks to the PAY IT FORWARD Foundation. I help people with disabilities who, like me, want to learn how to live again.

I used to live in Osiecza, which is nearby. After graduating from high school, I wanted to "escape" to study in Krakow. It didn't work out. I came back and stayed in Konin. I signed up to a tourist school and practiced at the local ORBIS travel agency. And I did so well that before I finished school, the head of the office hired me. I got my diploma and stayed there for 23 years.

We lived in a block of flats without a room where we could keep strollers. So I lugged baby strollers up and down the stairs to the 2nd floor for several years. And that's where my spine problems came from. Also sitting for 8, and sometimes more hours in an office chair from which I sent people into the world did not help either.

They were "wandering" between the muscles of my left leg more and more often. Usually when I stood for a long time. And the longer I stood, the more intensely the "ants ran". They "calmed down" when I kept my leg high on the stool. I went to the doctor when I couldn't climb the three steps leading to the office. It turned out that the "ants" were a symptom of a hernia that was located near my spine and was pressing on the spinal cord. And that without the surgery, I would be at risk of complete paralysis... The children were already grown up, and I was tempted to study pedagogy and work with the elderly. So I went to a college.

The hernia was removed. It was supposed to be better. But it get even worse. The hernia grew back. I stopped walking. Before the second surgery (2015), I felt extreme pain in every position. I didn't let anyone touch me. When I wanted to go to the bathroom I had to ride on a wheeled chair or on... my son's skateboard.

And the asanas stretched and strengthened my spine. Yoga 3 times a week. Plus swimming. And so, for 8 years I have been learning how to move my body so that the hernia, which is still growing back, does not press on my spinal cord.

The plane tickets I was selling were no longer needed. And I really needed a change. The Foundation was looking for an office worker. I didn't hesitate and submitted my CV.

Then there were new challenges like the editing and publication of the text on the website. This includes preparing a competition offer or writing a grant application. Now, I not only run our "command center", but also manage the organization of foundation training, coordinate the implementation of the foundation's "The Ball of Dreams" and art therapy projects. "Pulling my body out" when I need it so that the hernia doesn't "enter" the core again. And when, at home, I weave macrame strings and think about what I should do the next day, I am sure that I am working in the best place. For me. For people.